Author Topic: Screenshots published so far  (Read 57084 times)

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Offline Steve Walmsley (OP)

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Re: Screenshots published so far
« Reply #30 on: January 09, 2017, 06:06:38 PM »
I've made some changes to the system view based on feedback.

1) There are more options regarding flagging body surveys. You have the option to display 'U' for unsurveyed and an option to display 'T' for worlds that have been surveyed by a team ('MT' if they find minerals).
2) I've rearranged the colony cost, population and atmosphere columns to put pressure next to atmosphere.
3) The atmosphere column no longer shows details of each gas, with one gas per line. Instead, the basic type of atmosphere is shown on a single line. This display is either the main two gases, the main gas and oxygen (if oxygen is present and not the main gas) or 'Venusian' for those high pressure, high temperature worlds with a runaway greenhouse effect and a combination of carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide (open to suggestions for a different term than 'Venusian'). If oxygen is present, the oxygen pressure is shown.
4) Clicking on a body shows detailed atmospheric composition at the bottom of the window.
5) This section also shows the factors for the temperature calculation ( Surface Temperature (K) = Base Temp (K) * Greenhouse Factor * Albedo ) plus the base temp and surface temp in Kelvin and Celsius.

BTW for some reason the windows forms Listview control insists on changing the text colour of any selected row to the default for the control (see Mars below). This remove the indication colour (blue = habitable, etc) until that row is no longer selected. Very annoying and wasting a lot of time trying to fix it :). Any suggestions welcome.

 
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Offline Steve Walmsley (OP)

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Re: Screenshots published so far
« Reply #31 on: January 09, 2017, 06:06:58 PM »
Another system view screenshot, this time showing Alpha Centauri. This demonstrates just how much more real estate is now available for colonization. Note in the star listing that Alpha Centauri-A has 2 habitable bodies (less than 2.0 CC) and 142 near-habitable (between 2.0 and 3.0 CC), many of which are asteroids. Colonisation is no longer about finding potential colony sites but rather judging which of the many options is most suitable. With the new capacity rules, there are likely to be more colonies, but smaller ones.

 
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Offline Steve Walmsley (OP)

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Re: Screenshots published so far
« Reply #32 on: January 28, 2017, 06:57:23 PM »
The Create New Race window. This is accessed via the System View window and allows you to create a brand new empire based on a selected system body. Compared to the VB6 version, there is a lot more information on the new race, the primary species and the starting population. The race parameters are generated randomly and the details are displayed on the window. All of the fields are editable and can be used to modify the racial setup. Flags and Images can be altered before the race is created. The Random Name button is used to generate random values for the race name and title.

 
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Offline Steve Walmsley (OP)

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Re: Screenshots published so far
« Reply #33 on: March 06, 2017, 02:49:32 PM »
A minor update to the Fleet window tree view. Each Admin command now displays the required rank to be assigned to that command. The required rank is one rank higher than the most senior subordinate fleet commander or the most senior officer running a subordinate admin command. You can check the officers in the subordinate fleets by clicking on them.

For example, one of the colony fleets assigned to Colony Command has a Commander (CMDR) as it's C.O. so the Admin Command requires a Captain (CPT). Frontier Fleet requires a Rear-Admiral, as one of its subordinate fleets is commanded by a Commodore, which means the Battle Fleet (which is a higher Admin Command) needs a Vice-Admiral and the highest Admin Command (Commonwealth Navy) needs an Admiral.

With this requirement in mind, I will be creating the ability to assign minimum and maximum ranks for every ship (so you can ensure freighters are only commanded by the lowest rank for example). This should lead to much more realistic command structures.

I haven't completely decided on how the admin commands will work but at the moment I am leaning towards:
 - Admin Commands will have a type, that will allow that Admin Command to share certain bonuses from its commander (Survey from a Survey Admin Command, Logistics from a Logistics Admin Command, etc.)
 - There will be a new installation called Naval Command Headquarters (or something similar) which can have levels in the same way as a Sector Command. These will be transportable by freighters.
 - Each Admin Command will be assigned to a population with an NCH and its reach will be dependent on the level of that NCH (same rules as sector commands - probably with bonuses for certain Admin Command types such as Survey)
 - If the physical building is destroyed, there will be a chance for any officers running Admin Commands from its location to be killed. The Admin Commands themselves will have to relocate.
 - The reach will be counted in transits and every subordinate fleet or admin command in reach will be given the benefit from that command
 - The benefit will likely be on the lines of a sector command, so providing one quarter of the Admin Command C.O.'s bonus.
 - This can stack, so a survey ship would get a quarter of the bonus from the immediate superior admin command and a sixteenth of the bonus from the one above that.
 - If two Admin Commands are providing bonuses, the immediate superior command would have to be in range of the ship and the higher command would have to be in range of the lower command. This will create an administrative network reaching out from fleet headquarters and will require defences to protect the administrative nodes.

However, all of this is optional and not using Admin Commands will not cause any issues (beyond the loss of the potential bonuses).

This type of complex hierarchy for providing bonuses and realistic command structures is a benefit of C# and the much faster execution speed.



 
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Offline Steve Walmsley (OP)

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Re: Screenshots published so far
« Reply #34 on: March 17, 2017, 05:50:57 PM »
The first screenshots of the new Commanders window. There may still be some minor changes and a few extra buttons but the major elements of the window are all there. The major changes compared to VB6 are as follows:

1) Ranks have been moved into a tree view format. Scientists 'ranks' are their research fields while Administrators are arranged by admin rating.
2) The available assignment section shows the actual required rank now instead of the rank number. Greyed out ships already have assigned commanders. You filter those out by using the 'Available Only' option.
3) The history is more prominent and I have added some code (for future events) to remove the unnecessary 'relieve' events where they are followed by an assignment event without any time differential.
4) The search function allows you to specify four different bonuses and the list of the commanders will be sorted by those four bonuses left to right. Duplicates in the bonuses options are ignored. This section now also shows rank and current assignment.

In general, there is more information available and should allow for easier allocation of assignments.



The second screenshot shows a civilian administrator selected and a search based on administrator bonuses.



The third screenshot is back to naval commanders and shows the new assignment categories. In the search section, the duplicate espionage sort criterion is ignored.

 
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Offline Steve Walmsley (OP)

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Re: Screenshots published so far
« Reply #35 on: May 18, 2017, 07:11:52 AM »
The new Create Research Project window. Very similar in function to the VB6 version but laid out slightly differently.



 

Offline Steve Walmsley (OP)

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Re: Screenshots published so far
« Reply #36 on: June 12, 2017, 02:55:08 PM »
The new missile design window. Very similar in principle to the VB6 version, although I have added a company name option and an instant research option. This design displayed includes a missile engine designed with the new fuel consumption rules and a thermal sensor with the new passive sensor model. As you can see, passive-seeking missiles are going to be far more effective in C# Aurora.

 
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Offline Steve Walmsley (OP)

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Re: Screenshots published so far
« Reply #37 on: July 02, 2017, 04:51:40 AM »
The new Turret Design window. Very similar in function to the VB6 version but with the addition of the company name option and instant research option. Both this window and the missile design window can be accessed via the Create Project Window (as in VB6) and via the main toolbar on the tactical map window.

Note that the changes to turret design, especially with regard to correcting the armour bug, result in this turret being significantly smaller than the VB6 equivalent. For comparison, the same twin turret with armour strength 2 in VB6 is 24.27 HS and 194 BP.

« Last Edit: July 02, 2017, 04:55:04 AM by Steve Walmsley »
 
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Offline Steve Walmsley (OP)

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Re: Screenshots published so far
« Reply #38 on: July 22, 2017, 07:11:28 PM »
Below is the Combat section of the Naval Organization window. This replaces the combat overview window.

This new version is much cleaner and more user-friendly than the VB6 equivalent, with most functions handled via drag and drop. You can drag and drop weapons, targets, ECCM systems and point defence modes directly on to fire controls. Missiles are dragged on to missile launchers. Any assigned targets and point defence modes are listed below the fire control, before the assigned weapons. If you click 'Drag All', dragging a single weapon will drag all weapons of that type in the same location to the new location. Similarly, dragging a single missile will equip all launchers under the same fire control. You can also drag to and from Unassigned Weapons and Unassigned ECCM.

Potential targets are listed by alien race.

The Assign buttons on the right allow you to copy the complete combat setup for the selected ship to all other ships of the same class, or just those within the same sub-fleet, fleet or system.

There are also buttons for activating sensors, raising & lowering shields and firing using either a single fire control or all of them.



This screenshot shows a more developed naval organization on the left. On the right, note that when a fire control is given the order to fire it is displayed as Orange instead of Green.



A couple more to show different layouts



 
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Offline Steve Walmsley (OP)

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Re: Screenshots published so far
« Reply #39 on: August 05, 2017, 11:59:10 AM »
Although this is not a view of a new screen, it is a development milestone.

Racial Design Philosophy (used by NPRs) and Automated Design (used by NPRs and Shipping Lines) are both complete. Below is a computer-created design for a missile cruiser, using a random design philosophy. This uses all the new rules for sensors, shields, missiles, command & control, etc.. The automated design process includes designing missiles and allocating them to the class. The second screenshot is for a beam-armed destroyer, created using the same tech but a different design philosophy.





Note there is a small display bug in the missile range which I fixed after creating the screenshot.
 
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Offline Steve Walmsley (OP)

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Re: Screenshots published so far
« Reply #40 on: August 12, 2017, 08:05:55 AM »
The Naval Organization window with the updated Admin Command functionality described in this post:

http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=8495.msg103849#msg103849

 
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Offline Steve Walmsley (OP)

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Re: Screenshots published so far
« Reply #41 on: August 12, 2017, 08:17:03 AM »
The updated Admin Command functionality (shown above) has been added to the sidebar display on the Tactical Map. Only those admin commands relevant to the fleets in the system are displayed (unless the player uses the options to show fleets from all systems).

There is also an option to show civilian ships in the system, in which case all shipping lines with ships present are listed as Admin Commands with the prefix SPL.

Clicking on any fleet in the sidebar view, including civilians, will centre the map on that fleet.

One other minor change since the last Tactical Map screenshot is the addition of missile design and turret design buttons in the centre of the toolbar.

 
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Offline Steve Walmsley (OP)

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Re: Screenshots published so far
« Reply #42 on: August 18, 2017, 06:43:25 PM »
The first screenshots of the C# Aurora Galactic Map. It is very similar in overall function to the VB6 Galactic Map, but with a cleaner look and a few additions. The screenshots are 3400x1400 so you may have to scroll to see the full width.

1) The system icons are larger, mainly because the number of low cost worlds is much higher now due to the low gravity options and I need room for the numbers. You can see that from the second screenshot

2) The yellow dashed circles with large dashes identify the locations of Admin Commands.

3) The dashed circles with small dashes are the locations of alien contacts. You can filter this option on the contacts tab to independently show allied, friendly, neutral, hostile or civilian. The colour used for the dashed circle will be the most threatening contact in the system (hostile, then neutral, etc.).

4) The contacts and naval forces tab replicate those tabs from the tactical map.

5) The toolbar buttons all have the same function as the identical buttons on the tactical map, so you can run the Empire from this window if desired. Clicking on SM mode or Auto-turns on the galactic or tactical map will also highlight the equivalent button on the other window.

6) Clicking in open space and dragging will move the map. Clicking on a system and dragging will move only that system. Unlike VB6, the map and the system move with the mouse rather than moving only when you release the button.

7) A whole new set of more modern hull icons are available and you can change the racial icon from this window. You can also choose a space station icon to represent shipyard locations.

8) The flag icons are displayed much more cleanly than in VB6.



This second screenshot has the low gravity colony cost 2.00 - 2.99 option checked, which demonstrates the huge number of potential colony sites in C# Aurora. Alpha Centauri for example has 144 bodies in this category. Vega has 215. When an asteroid belt, or a gas giant with many moons, is in the habitable zone, a lot of potential colony cites become available. More fleet icons are visible in this shot because the 'All Fleets' option is selected, whereas the first screenshot only showed warships.



« Last Edit: August 20, 2017, 11:32:52 AM by Steve Walmsley »
 
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Offline Steve Walmsley (OP)

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Re: Screenshots published so far
« Reply #43 on: August 20, 2017, 11:28:48 AM »
The Fuel Report window from VB6 becomes a tab on the Naval Organization window in C# Aurora. The fields are very similar, although C# offers more options in terms of exclusions.

 

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Re: Screenshots published so far
« Reply #44 on: August 20, 2017, 11:47:51 AM »
Here are three updated Galactic Map screenshots. Labels have been added plus three icons have been changed to provide the functionality:

1) Saving changes to system positions
2) Undoing any system position changes since the last save
3) Lining up systems in a grid.

All these functions exist in VB6 Aurora, although now they should be easier to use.



Thsi screenshot shows the Map Labels tab, which allows you to create, delete or change labels, or copying existing labels (to retain the colour and font). Labels are moved around the map by clicking and dragging and are saved in the same way as system positions.



This screenshot shows the Naval Forces tab, which can display all naval forces or only those within the selected system. In the latter case, only Admin Commands relevant to that system are displayed.